Chapter 18 Negotiations in the Underworld (2) “I just want to see the Emperor of Heaven.”…
Before anyone could continue their conversation, the waiter started serving the dishes.
Cooking with magic in hell is much faster than the complicated cooking steps on earth. Only pre-prepared dishes are faster than magic.
Therefore, even the most fancy restaurant in hell can serve all the dishes within seven or eight minutes. The four of them simply waited for a while until the fruit plate was served and the waiter left the private room before continuing their conversation.
Xuan Chi only had one concern: "I want to see the Emperor of Heaven."
Xie Bian frowned deeply, rubbing his brows with his fingertips. "Let me be frank. His return to China...is impossible within the next hundred years at least."
Xuan Chi's face suddenly darkened, and Si Ling also frowned: "A hundred years?"
Xie Bian nodded irritably. "You know, the people we bring to the underworld are all those whose life spans are recorded in the Book of Life and Death. The only exceptions are ghosts like you who existed before Fengdu. But the ancient beast..." He raised his eyes and glanced at Xuan Chi. "He's obviously not in the Book of Life and Death. I have two ways to get him to the underworld."
Hyun Chi: “What?”
Xie Bian counted on his fingers, "First, we need to improve the rules. This will inevitably require repeated discussions among various departments, and the process itself will be very long. Moreover, in theory, all divine beasts are under the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Court, which makes it even more complicated. If they delay the progress even a little, three, five, or even thousands of years will pass."
Si Ling just picked up a duck pancake and paused: "Such a special matter...special matters must be handled specially!"
"That's the second option," Xie Bian sighed. "But you know how things work in the underworld. Aside from our task of retrieving souls from the mortal realm, everything else isn't rushed. Especially with his case... everyone knows it's okay to let him wait. Trying to push it forward ourselves might be a thankless task. There are definitely more than one or two people who selfishly want to delay it until they're gone and hand it over to the next person. A hundred years can easily pass by."
"You guys..." Si Ling, who was rolling the roast duck, laughed angrily and wanted to curse bureaucracy for being deadly.
Xuan Chi said, "I can wait."
Si Ling turned his head to look at him. He was only looking at Xie Bian, his face expressionless and emotionless, but his tone was firm and unwavering: "One hundred years, two hundred years, three hundred, five hundred, or even a thousand years, I can wait. I want to see the Emperor of Heaven."
"I don't mean to evade you politely." Xie Bian's face was filled with worry as he continued, "But I still have a question - you said that the Emperor of Heaven killed you indiscriminately, so you're really lucky that you didn't die. If you return to Heaven and the Emperor of Heaven kills you again, what will you do?"
"It doesn't matter." Xuan Chi said calmly, "I don't want to argue about right or wrong, I just want to know why I deserve to die."
"..." Xie Bian was stuck for a moment, then asked, "What if... just a hypothesis, the Emperor of Heaven still doesn't give you a reason and kills you as soon as they meet?"
Si Ling couldn't help but glance at him sideways, then lowered his eyes to look at the roast duck roll in his hand. He stood up without saying a word, leaned over and put it on Xuan Chi's plate.
"Thank you." Xuan Chi felt her comfort and nodded in thanks. He then said to Xie Bian, "If it's really as you said, then that's a reason in itself."
Xie Bian was surprised: "Huh?"
"If the Emperor of Heaven simply doesn't want me to continue existing in this world, then that in itself is reason enough to sentence me to death." Xuan Chi paused, "But I want to hear these words with my own ears."
"No..." Xie Bian didn't understand. "Do you need to hear it with your own ears? Didn't the Emperor of Heaven tell you when he killed you?"
"No." Xuan Chi's eyes froze, his thoughts lingering on the only remaining clarity and above, his expression became gloomy.
Xie Bian tried to ask, "What happened back then?"
Xuan Chi took a deep breath, his crow-winged eyelashes drooping even lower. He opened his mouth, as if to explain, but the mere thought caused a sharp pain to rip through his chest where the bronze heavy sword had pierced it.
He was well aware that he was now a ghost, and while ghosts could certainly be hurt, the pain he'd felt in his flesh wouldn't carry over. This pain was fake, a product of obsession, but it was so intense that he couldn't speak.
"...Forget it." Si Ling suddenly said, looking at Xuan Chi worriedly, but she was talking to Xie Bian, "This is the grudge between him and the Emperor of Heaven, we shouldn't get involved."
Xie Bian was dissatisfied: "Private matter? He wants to go to the underworld of Porcelain Country. This matter is enough to involve the entire underworld. You tell me it's a private matter? Am I asking for an explanation too much?"
Si Ling looked back coldly, "If you want to argue with me about this kind of right and wrong—releasing him from the bronze sword was our own decision. We caused the current trouble ourselves, and it's our responsibility to clean up the mess. We didn't consider what kind of entanglement he might have behind him when we released him, which is also our own fault. I don't think we have the right to let him open his wounds to us because of this embarrassing situation."
"You..." Xie Bian was annoyed, but couldn't speak.
He also understood in his heart that Si Ling's words were actually very polite - last night, among him, Fan Wujiu and Si Ling, she was the only one who mentioned not caring about Xuan Chi. It was he and Fan Wujiu who refused to let go and persuaded her to release Xuan Chi, and forced her to go through a fierce battle.
If she wanted to make things worse now, she could just bring up this past incident and accuse him of being stubborn.
But she didn't, and she still said "we", which can be said to be extremely inclusive.
Lucifer was tucking his napkin into his chest and was politely savoring a piece of slightly sweet Suzhou-style smoked fish. When he noticed the tension between Si Ling and Xie Bian, he put down his chopsticks.
"Sorry to interrupt you two," he said.
Si Ling glanced over and saw Lucifer smiling gentlemanly at Xuan Chi: "I want to ask, have you ever considered why this respected ancient beast died in Hohenzollernburg?"
"What? He didn't die in Hohenzollern Castle!" Xie Bian frowned and corrected, "When he appeared there, Hohenzollern Castle hadn't been built yet, right?"
"Yes, that's true. I misunderstood." Lucifer nodded apologetically. "I mean, have you ever considered why he died in Hans?"
Si Ling was stunned and looked at Xuan Chi in confusion. Xuan Chi was also looking at her subconsciously.
Lucifer sneered, "Currently, the Porcelain Nation on Earth has 9.6 million square kilometers of land, an area almost as large as the entirety of Europe. In the past... even though your nation has split and merged, and your territory has undergone various changes, you have always been a vast nation. Your culture has never been interrupted, and your ancient myths have been passed down to this day - you all understand what this means, right?"
Si Ling gradually understood Lucifer's thoughts and said thoughtfully, "You mean, our gods have never lost their ruling power?"
"Yes," Lucifer nodded. "'Where believers gather, the gods rule'—this is the consensus of the gods from all walks of life. Under this culture-based sphere of influence, the jurisdiction of you Eastern gods is even greater than the borders of China. Many of the surrounding countries share your culture."
"But Hans Country... this place has never been under the jurisdiction of the Eastern gods. It now belongs to Jehovah and Satan, and even earlier to the Germanic gods." Lucifer spread his hands. "So, you see... tens of millions of square kilometers of divine territory are not enough for your Heavenly Court? What made your Emperor of Heaven have to travel to Hans Country to slay a divine beast? Do you think this is normal?"
Lucifer said this, looking at Xuan Chi again and half-jokingly asking, "Why are you here? Are you here to attend Lin Yao①'s party?"
"Of course, you might be thinking that you can find out all this when you meet the Emperor of Heaven. But as Mr. Xie just said—" Lucifer politely extended his hand to Xie Bian, "What if the Emperor of Heaven kills you the moment they meet? Then you'll never know the answer, but don't you want to know?"
Xuan Chi fell into deep thought, and Lucifer continued, "I can sense that you are very loyal to your Emperor of Heaven. Given this loyalty, these details may not matter to you. But let's think about it from another perspective - what if it can lead to a better outcome?"
Lucifer, like a therapist, patiently counseled Xuan Chi, "If your murder was due to some misunderstanding, and the Emperor of Heaven may still be unaware of the truth, then why rush back? We can first search for clues in Hans and find out the truth. If your death was truly unjust, then we can present the evidence to the Emperor of Heaven, and he will not kill you again. Wouldn't that be a happy ending for everyone?"
Si Ling's eyebrows twitched slightly. After understanding the conflict between Lucifer and Satan, she knew very well that Lucifer had selfish motives in making such a suggestion - it could even be said that selfish motives accounted for the majority of it.
But she had to admit that what Lucifer said did make sense.
The reason why Xuan Chi was killed is now a mystery, his memory does not exist, and there are objective obstacles to returning to the Porcelain Country.
Instead of focusing solely on asking the Emperor for clarification, it would be better to use this time to explore the entire situation. If Xuan Chi could truly achieve a better outcome, it would be a good thing for everyone involved.
Especially for her who wants to become an immortal, if Xuan Chi can make peace with the Emperor of Heaven, then she will have a great backer.
As for Lucifer's selfishness——
Si Ling simply pointed it out directly: "Do you want him to stay in the Ghost Academy, Mr. Principal?"
"Our Ghost Academy isn't bad either!" Lucifer crossed his arms calmly. "We have everything we need, including food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. We have direct access to the bustling area of Lingbo City. The courses are practical, and there are plenty of opportunities for practical experience. Oh, and our library has a rich collection too. We have all the language books, religion books, and history books you could want!"
Lucifer's passionate promotional tone reminded Si Ling of Lanxiang Technical School's earlier TV commercials. She looked at Xuan Chi and found herself somewhat hoping he would agree to this suggestion.
This is probably because there are so few compatriots she can see in this place.
But she was a little surprised when Hyun Chi suddenly asked her, "What do you think?"
"Uh..." She froze. "For such an important matter, you should make the decision yourself."
She felt that objectively speaking, they weren't that familiar with each other. She didn't want to cause trouble, so she didn't want to make decisions on such a major matter for an ancient mythical beast.
"I just want to see the Emperor of Heaven." Xuan Chi stared at her with a burning gaze and bowed sincerely. "Besides that, the most important thing is to repay the person who saved me."
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The author has something to say: Lucifer: "Who has the best excavator technology? Go to Lanxiang in Hohenzollern, Germany!"
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【Notes】
①【Forest Monster】A species in Germanic legend, which seems to have existed very early, before the Common Era.
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